Congress president Rahul Gandhi was on Friday witness to a bizarre coincidence, which might have escaped his attention as well.
On Friday morning, Rahul tweeted about his Patna-bound special aircraft suffering a technical snag mid-air, forcing him to take a U-turn to Delhi.
Engine trouble on our flight to Patna today! We’ve been forced to return to Delhi. Today’s meetings in Samastipur (Bihar), Balasore (Orissa) & Sangamner (Maharashta) will run late. Apologies for the inconvenience. pic.twitter.com/jfLLjYAgcO
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 26, 2019
But little did he realise that exactly a year back on this same date, he had encountered a similar mid-air scare. His flight to Karnataka had developed an engine problem en route on April 26, 2018, and had to make a crash landing at the Hubbali airport.
Both the incidents have come during the election time.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has ordered a probe into the incident, even as a final report of last year’s investigations is yet to be released.
Rahul looked visibly upset in the video which he released after the incident on Friday. He was scheduled to fly from Patna to Balasore in Odisha and then to Maharashtra to address election rallies. The events have been delayed now.
In 2018, on this day, Rahul had taken a chartered aircraft for Karnataka to address election rallies. One and a half hours later, his flight faced a technical snag and Rahul, in his own words, said later that he thought “it’s all over”. After that incident, Rahul had decided to visit Kailash Mansarovar.
The DGCA’s interim report had blamed the pilot for reacting late after the auto-pilot tripped, creating panic and scare for the passengers in the cabin.
